USD at No. 18 SDSU

Series: SDSU leads 26-17, winning six straight and nine of the last 10. The Aztecs won 74-62 last year after trailing 14-2.

Tickets: Technically sold out, although SDSU (which just started winter break) released 500 student tickets for sale to the general public at $20. They’re available at GoAztecs.com.

Aztecs outlook: They are 50-1 in the last 51 home games against unranked opponents and have won 27 straight against schools from California. Jamaal Frankin (19.1 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 3.3 apg) is a single rebound away from averaging a double-double and ranks fifth nationally in PAR (points-assists-rebounds). He’s also seventh nationally in free throws attempted (8.4). The mother of starting forward JJ O’Brien, Cathy, played at USD after transferring from Notre Dame. One area of focus this week has been second-half defense. In the second half of the last two games, opponents are shooting 52.9 percent and outscoring the Aztecs 87-78.

Toreros outlook: Sophomore guard Johnny Dee (Rancho Buena Vista High) has already been named WCC player of the week twice, most recently after averaging 20 points and making 8-of-14 3-pointers in two wins last week. “A lot of us missed on him,” SDSU coach Steve Fisher said of the former walkon. “He has turned to be a pretty good find for them.” Senior post Chris Manresa is back from a bad back that sidelined him for seven games; the Toreros are 4-0 when he plays, 2-5 when he doesn’t. Another senior, Ken Rancifer, has come alive lately, with a career-high 27 points on 10-of-12 shooting against Arizona Christian on Tuesday. USD has yet to win a game against a team with an RPI above 200.

--MARK ZEIGLER

It is that time of year again, when Steve Fisher will tell anyone with ears that records and rankings and reputations mean nothing in the face of rivalry, that margin of victory seems directly related to geographical proximity. That San Diego State scoring 46 points against UC Santa Barbara in the first half and USD scoring 39 in the entire game against those same Gauchos a couple weeks earlier doesn’t quite add up like you’d think.

He’s a former math teacher.

He’s also been around these games, and their quirks and surprises and overtime thrillers, for a while.

Fisher said the same things last year, and his players admitted it: They didn’t listen. “We weren’t ready to play,” point guard Xavier Thames said afterward.

This year, though, Fisher is equipped with verifiable proof. He can wave around a DVD and press play. His SDSU Aztecs were heavily favored last December in the annual men’s basketball “City Championship” against USD at Jenny Craig Pavilion, and found themselves trailing 14-2. They would win 74-62, but still …

Fisher was asked if he’ll remind his players of it.

“They are well aware,” he said. “We show tape of it every day.”

The Aztecs haven’t always been ranked No. 18, and the USD hasn’t always had an RPI (ratings percentage index) of 281 out of 347 Division I schools, yet 10 of the last 12 meetings have been decided by a dozen or fewer points. Even SDSU’s 77-49 rout at Viejas Arena two years ago en route to a 34-3 season wasn’t what it seems: The Toreros led by seven late in the first half.

SDSU women’s coach Beth Burns went through it last week, grinding out a 58-54 victory after trailing by 11. Her theory:

“If you look at football, if my guys are 300 pounds and your guys are 200 pounds, we can have a slow day but we are still going to push you over. The great equalizer in basketball is you have to put the ball in the basket. So it doesn’t matter who is bigger, faster, stronger, quicker, smaller, older. On any given day, you have to put the ball in the basket.

“And you’ve got a lot of people who know one another, coaches that have familiarity with each other and players that have familiarity with each other. So you have all that extra incentive, and sometimes emotion becomes counterproductive when it comes to trying to make shots … I mean, I’m sure you’ve been hearing Coach (Fisher) say it all week.”

Jamaal Franklin put it like this: “We play against each other in the summer. They know our games, we know their games.”

USD (6-5) could use the help in intangibles, because it doesn’t have much to trump the Aztecs (7-1) in the tangible department. “They’re athletically superior,” USD coach Bill Grier said.

It creates matchup nightmares for the Toreros at both ends of the floor. Grier starts a backcourt 5-foot-6 Chris Anderson and 5-11 Johnny Dee; a year ago, 6-3 SDSU point guard Xavier Thames had 11 points and 11 assists (the first double-double in points and assists by an Aztecs player in a decade) and 6-3 Chase Tapley had 23 points after making nine of his first 11 shots.

The alternative, of course, is a healthy diet of zone. UCSB tried that early last week, and the Aztecs drained 10 of their first 12 attempts behind the 3-point arc and led by 27.

On defense, the Aztecs are so long and interchangeable that they can, and do, switch most screens. The reaction of opposing coaches after games is becoming familiar: shaking their heads and lamenting how hard it was to create quality looks against the switching defense, as SDSU’s defensive field-goal percentage of .377 (38th nationally) attests.

“The game plan against them is kind of simple,” said Grier, who is 0-5 against the Aztecs since coming to USD. “You can’t turn the ball over, because they turn that into instant offense. And you have to figure out some way to keep them off the glass. Whether you can do that is another story.”

Fisher knows all that. He also knows it’s a rivalry game, and the team with more to gain usually finds a way to negate any tangible disadvantages. And the shadow cast by Montezuma Mesa over Alcala Park continues to grow longer.

“Obviously with the type of environment they have,” Grier said, “if we pull off an upset it would be a huge, huge thing for our program. Beating any high-profile program would be big for us. But certainly here in San Diego, it would give you a lot of credibility.”